Younger investors are bleeding out of traditional deposit accounts—nearly 2/3 moved money elsewhere in the past year, chasing yield and exposure on digital-native platforms. If you're still sitting on the sidelines, you're losing clients.
Three ways to bring crypto to your platform:
1️⃣ Build in-house
You own the stack: licensing, custody, execution, settlement, compliance. Maximum control, but multi-year timeline and heavy capex. Only makes sense if you have the talent and capital to run a permanent crypto ops team. Chains fork, new assets drop, attack vectors evolve—this isn't a one-time build.
2️⃣ Stitch together vendors
Faster than building. You pick specialists for each layer and keep vendor optionality. The downside? You own the integration. Every vendor needs diligence, and when something breaks at 2am, you're playing detective across multiple counterparties.
3️⃣ Partner with one full-stack regulated provider
Fastest to market—months, not years. One counterparty handles custody, execution, settlement, and compliance under your brand. You still own the client relationship. The risk is vendor concentration: you're betting on their roadmap and regulatory posture. But when something breaks, there's one throat to choke.
The 2am test: who do you call when it breaks?
If you built it, you fix it. If you stitched vendors, good luck figuring out whose fault it is. If you partnered with one stack, you have one accountable counterparty.
What to ask any partner:
✅ Are they a fiduciary custodian?
✅ Are client assets bankruptcy-remote and never rehypothecated?
✅ Do they absorb counterparty and settlement risk?
✅ Have they survived full exam cycles and market stress?
✅ Do they compete for your clients?
Paxos runs the full-stack model under a national trust charter from the OCC. 10+ years under prudential supervision. Powers crypto for Schwab, Interactive Brokers, PayPal. Issues $PYUSD and $USDG stablecoins. Never competes for your clients.
If you're weighing how to move, the clock is ticking. Your clients are already gone.
Three ways to bring crypto to your platform:
1️⃣ Build in-house
You own the stack: licensing, custody, execution, settlement, compliance. Maximum control, but multi-year timeline and heavy capex. Only makes sense if you have the talent and capital to run a permanent crypto ops team. Chains fork, new assets drop, attack vectors evolve—this isn't a one-time build.
2️⃣ Stitch together vendors
Faster than building. You pick specialists for each layer and keep vendor optionality. The downside? You own the integration. Every vendor needs diligence, and when something breaks at 2am, you're playing detective across multiple counterparties.
3️⃣ Partner with one full-stack regulated provider
Fastest to market—months, not years. One counterparty handles custody, execution, settlement, and compliance under your brand. You still own the client relationship. The risk is vendor concentration: you're betting on their roadmap and regulatory posture. But when something breaks, there's one throat to choke.
The 2am test: who do you call when it breaks?
If you built it, you fix it. If you stitched vendors, good luck figuring out whose fault it is. If you partnered with one stack, you have one accountable counterparty.
What to ask any partner:
✅ Are they a fiduciary custodian?
✅ Are client assets bankruptcy-remote and never rehypothecated?
✅ Do they absorb counterparty and settlement risk?
✅ Have they survived full exam cycles and market stress?
✅ Do they compete for your clients?
Paxos runs the full-stack model under a national trust charter from the OCC. 10+ years under prudential supervision. Powers crypto for Schwab, Interactive Brokers, PayPal. Issues $PYUSD and $USDG stablecoins. Never competes for your clients.
If you're weighing how to move, the clock is ticking. Your clients are already gone.